Reborn
by Madhumalati
Summary: A wish upon the Shikon no Tama brings Kagura back. What do you do when you get a second chance at life? Oneshot, SessKag, obviously.


A/N: here it is. The Kagura resurrection that's been bubbling in my head since forever. I was extreeeeemly upset when I read that Kagura died, because she's one of my favourite characters in the anime. And I don't think there's any fics of this kind on this site; reincarnation or magical transformation, but this is unique as far as I know. This is a one-shot and will remain so (unless plot bunnies strike – although my CCS readers will know that I usually have plot Moon Guardians instead). And do review. Finally finally updating after weeks of silence!

_**Reborn**_

In a field filled with flowers where a woman had once died, the wind stirred uneasily.

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Kagura gasped in a deep breath as her body solidified. She opened her eyes to see herself cocooned in a dazzling cage of light – purified energy – that faded even as she saw it, leaving sparking afterimages in her vision.

'I'm……alive……' she said hoarsely as she fell to the ground, her fingers scrabbling at the earth as she struggled to keep herself grounded. She ran her hands over her body several times, ignoring the ache in atrophied arm muscles, seeking every hollow and curve, until she was satisfied that she was, indeed, corporeal. She was comfortingly solid. Even her clothing had mended itself.

Lastly, because she was too afraid to do so before, she touched her breast tentatively. Her heart thumped strongly there, a little too fast from fear and shock and adrenaline, but oh so perfect.

'I'm free,' she whispered. 'Free……but how?'

The last thing she remembered was the fading pain as her nerves faded, looking into bright amber eyes, her body shivering, dissolving, turning into wind……

Kagura retched, coughed as the memory washed over her. 'Ohhhh,' she said as she tried to rise. Muscles in her legs refused to work, and she simply lay on the ground, her nose buried in the warm-smelling earth. Her arms were hurting now, and her entire body was feeling stuffed with pins and needles. She groaned and rolled onto her back.

'All right. Take it slow.'

Her body had grown stiff and sore, but her magic was still as easy to summon as well. She put her hand to her head to summon up her feather, and frowned as she felt one missing. It had probably drifted away. In a swirl of youki, she flew up into the air, lying limp as a dead fish on the feather.

Her first thought, like that of any wounded animal, was to find a safe place to rest and recover. Any place she went to would be in Naraku's reach, but there was one village even he wouldn't go to so easily. And if her last days were anything to go by, she would find at least a neutral reception there.

She directed her feather to Kaede's village.

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'What the hell is that?' Inuyasha said as he saw a faint shape take form in the sky. It was right in front of the sun, and he shaded his hands and squinted. 'Looks like a……'

His nose twitched. He sniffed, and then his eyes widened and he sniffed again. 'It can't be,' he whispered incredulously. 'She's dead.'

'Inuyasha!' Miroku said, coming out of Kaede's hut. 'I sense something coming. It's close.'

Silently, the hanyou tapped him on the shoulder and pointed him in the right direction.

'It's a feather,' Miroku said wonderingly.

'It is,' Sango said as she and Kagome came out to stand beside them.

'And there's only one person we know who travels around like that,' Inuyasha said. Although his hand strayed to Tetsusaiga's hilt he didn't draw the fang.

'You don't mean to say it's……'

'Kagura,' he finished grimly. 'It looks like your wish had some unexpected results, Kagome.'

The feather floated down before them. The wind user lay on it, looking weaker than they had ever seen her. 'Inuyasha,' she said in greeting. 'A little…help here…' and she passed out.

'All right, don't just stand there,' said Kagome, taking command of the situation. 'Why don't you bring her inside and then we'll see what to do.'

With a shrug, he lifted her up and followed the miko.

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For a second time, Kagura's eyes struggled open. She was in a large room, and someone had tucked her into a bed. She felt……rather comfortable, really.

'Hey, you're awake,' the miko greeted her. What was her name? Oh. Kagome. 'How do you feel?'

'Like I was run over by a herd of horse youkai,' Kagura replied. 'Why, am I supposed to feel any better?'

Kagome cleared her throat. 'From what I can tell, your muscles are atrophied from disuse – although your mouth seems to be working just fine,' she added acidly. 'Given that you're a youkai, Inuyasha and Kaede think that you should be fully recovered in two or three days.'

'Oh.'

'Kaede cooked up something to make it easier, and to deal with the pain.' The miko moved around, putting things away, clearing up. 'I'll give it to you once you've had a little food.'

'Thank you,' she forced out. 'I only wanted a place to stay in peace where other youkai wouldn't come after me. I didn't expect you to……'

'Nonsense. You're a friend, and you saved Kohaku's life in exchange for yours. In fact, I think Sango would build you a temple and be your priestess if you asked her real nice.'

Kagura laughed harshly. 'I'm no saint or spirit to have a temple.'

'You're not a bad person either.'

'I've killed. A lot.'

'So have I. Your point?'

Kagura was silent for a while. 'I'm free of Naraku, you know. I have my heart back.'

Kagome stopped and looked her in the face. 'So that's how he was controlling you,' she said. 'I'd wondered.'

'Yeah, well, he made a mistake giving it back, didn't he?'

Silence fell.

'If you would like an extra hand along, I wouldn't mind joining you on your travels. I have this desperate desire to dance on Naraku's corpse.'

'Oh, my. You don't know, do you?' Kagome said. 'Naraku's dead.'

It was lucky she was lying down, or she would have fallen. 'H-he's dead?'

'As a doorknob,' the miko said cheerfully. 'The Shikon no Tama was restored, and I made a wish on it and it drained the jewel enough that it doesn't have any power anymore.' She pushed the neck of her ridiculous dress aside to show Kagura the jewel. It lay there dully, with not a flicker to indicate any power. 'I wished that all the innocents who suffered because of the Shikon no Tama should be granted peace. I guess it granted that wish, in your case, by bringing you back to life.'

'Naraku's dead,' the wind user said. She had barely heard the rest. 'Dead. He's dead.' She tried the word out a few more times for good measure, loving its sound in her mouth. 'Dead!' she cheered.

'Yes,' Kagome said, backing away. 'Are you all right?'

'Sure,' Kagura said. 'You just gave me the best news I've heard since forever.'

'Here's some food,' the miko said, giving her a plate. 'Eat that, and then take this medicine.'

'It must have been a hell of a party,' she said wistfully. 'Pity I didn't get to see it.'

'You need to rest now.'

'I don't suppose there's enough left of him for me to reanimate, is there?'

'No, there isn't. But why would you want to do that?'

Kagura smiled unpleasantly. 'So I could kill him again. A few hundred times. He deserves it.'

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Kagura was finally fully recovered. She was also beginning to feel a little uncomfortable around the others. For one, she'd tried to kill them all, multiple times, with varying degrees of success. It was also painfully obvious that the slayer and the monk were involved, and so were the other two. She felt out of place.

Then the others in the village were getting a little antsy around her. The name of Kagura was infamous in these parts. She didn't know whether to be saddened or pleased by the fear and awe they held her in. after she started walking around, though, there were several polite hints made to Kaede that maybe, just maybe, she was a little dangerous to be around?

So on the morning of the third day since she had landed in the village she summoned her feather again and made her goodbyes.

'You're always welcome here,' Sango said, clasping her arm, warm sincerity in her brown eyes.

'Not by them,' Kagura replied, her crimson eyes flickering to the villagers, who were gathered at a discreet distance.

'Ignore them,' Inuyasha contributed. 'That' what I do when I have to be around ignorant, narrow-minded morons. If any of them have problems, they can talk to me. Having a bump or two on the head works wonders for this sort.'

Kagura grinned. The expression still felt a little strange on her face, but she liked it. 'Thank you, Inuyasha. Likewise, if you ever need any help, I'll be there.'

'Of course,' Kagome said with a gentle smile. 'Take care of yourself now.'

She waved at Miroku, not knowing what to say. He'd usually been the one fighting her, and he was also the sharpest of them all. He made her nervous, with those indigo eyes that saw too much. He didn't say anything in return, and she sighed and stepped onto her feather. She was ready to leave when he spoke. 'I heard rumours the other day that Sesshoumaru was seen to the east of here. About twenty miles, and a bit north.'

She knew she was gaping, because she could see her expression mirrored in the others' faces as they stared from her to him. 'I'll keep that in mind,' she said evenly and left.

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'Lord Sesshoumaru. Is something wrong?' the little girl was dancing from foot to foot as usual, but her big brown eyes were fixed intently on his face.

The tall youkai shook his head slightly, his keen nose still trying to trace that faint, elusive scent that was so familiar. 'I smelled something…'

'It must have been the wind,' she said before she was distracted by a colourful butterfly in the grass. She ran after it, giggling.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed slightly as he identified the scent. It was one he had never expected to smell again. 'The wind, was it.'

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He had mocked her once, saying that if she could, she should become strong enough to face her problems on her own instead of running for help.

Well, this time she wasn't going to make that mistake. She wouldn't seek him out until she had a life of her own, a role of her own. She had been born three days ago, she was Kagura of the Wind, and she was free.

So she went due west for a whole day, exulting in the feeling of flying. When she was sure that she was in a place where she had never gone before, she slowed down, looking for a secluded place, easily defensible and not too close to any youkai. She finally stopped at a mountain cave, snug and warm, with a river nearby. The only disadvantage was that there was a human village close by. Well, as long as they didn't bother her, she would ignore them.

This time around, she was going to think several times before killing.

She didn't extend the same mercy to the predators and lesser youkai who sought her out, lured by the scent of what they thought was a weak youkai, alone and defenceless. Those, she killed quickly and easily and with enough……flair……that in two months her home – it was that, by now – was left alone by most of the dangerous beasts in the area. Very carefully alone.

The greater youkai, the ones that didn't go into irrational frenzies, she cautiously and politely avoided. There was an otter that lived in the river that was quite tolerable company. It, like her, merely wanted to be left in peace, and it had an adorable kid. Kit. Whatever. They got along just fine, and Kagura found other youkai pleasant for the first time in her life. She occasionally dropped off some game at his doorstep, and his kit gave her fish every so often.

Having a friend, she decided, was……nice.

She spent a while carving a bigger home for herself, and stocking it with the essentials and making it look less like a hole in the ground. She also began to expand the limits of her abilities. Her youki was much more powerful now. Apparently Naraku hadn't wanted her to reach full power before. She studied it, learning more about her heritage as a wind user, and felt absurdly proud of herself for her progress. After all, it was the first thing she had ever learnt, and without instruction at that. Naraku had equipped her with some skills, but these were all her own.

What time she had left, she spent flying, and she occasionally went down to the village to get some paper, paints and ink so she could draw. The villagers feared her, since she was a youkai (and one with eerie eyes) but after a while the shopkeepers, at least, warmed up to her. So did the lumberjacks she helped out sometimes to earn spending money. It was refreshing, using wind blades to fell trees instead of people, and it even gained her something in return.

After a couple of months she went back to Kaede's village for a visit, to let them know that she was all right. The slayer and the monk had already left for the exterminators' village with Kohaku, but the miko and Inuyasha were still there.

'You smell different now,' were Inuyasha's greeting words.

Recalling that he had once accused her of wearing trashy perfume, she asked him what he meant.

'Well, you don't smell of _him_ anymore, for one thing. And before, you used to have this other scent about you. Unnatural. It's gone now, you just smell like any other elemental youkai.'

'Heh,' she said, but her lips twitched and she looked pleased.

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Six months after she was reborn, he found her.

She was asleep when she felt it – the warning system that she had set up tickled at her mind, and the youki it sensed was familiar. Her eyes flew open immediately, and she sat up. She didn't bother to go out and look for him; if he was within range of her senses, he already knew where she was. She stayed at the doorway of her home, waiting.

For once, she thought, _he_ would seek _her_ out.

He came out of the trees, a vision in white. Kagura's heart thudded painfully once and then stopped altogether. He looked exactly the same as before, except that Toukijin no longer hung by his side. Only Tenseiga was there, sheathed as always.

'Sesshoumaru,' she breathed.

His head inclined slightly. 'Kagura.'

She carefully restrained herself from doing or saying anything rash. He had sought her out at the end, and had attempted to resurrect her, but that didn't necessarily mean much; she could have just been a curiosity to him, like that ugly kappa that hung around him. Sesshoumaru tended to collect pets, oddities and strays.

'What do you want?' she said.

'Merely to affirm what I sensed a while ago.'

'What was that?'

'That you were alive.'

'Oh. And what do you think?'

'You've changed, Kagura.'

She looked down at herself. The old red-and-white kimono was gone. Now she wore a black-and-white outfit that was a less scandalously tight version of a slayer's costume, comfortable and easy to move in. Her earrings were the same, but her bare feet were covered with sturdy black boots. Yes, she had changed.

'Not only that way, Kagura.'

Oh yes, that was right. He couldn't have tracked her down with his nose, since she smelled different now. He had to have spent a lot of time finding her. She wasn't exactly in the public eye anymore. 'I have,' she said. 'For the better, I think.' How red the stripes on his cheeks were, and how icy his hair that blew in the wind.

'I see,' he said, and seemed not to know what to say next.

They stood there for a while. He looked faintly puzzled. She felt numb. Finally, without another word spoken, he turned and vanished back into the forest.

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More time passed. Kagura fell into a comfortable routine, relishing the peace and quiet. She was almost a commonplace thing at the human village nearby; she generated good business, was reasonably nice to the people, didn't eat anyone, and had become popular with the younger women in the village after she taught a quiet lesson to the town bully and lecher after he thought that he could proposition her just because she didn't have her fans on her at the time. The lesson had been quiet, anyway; he had been loud. Youkai constitutions were stronger than human, and even Kagura, who had had no formal training in hand-to-hand combat, was able to give him painful injuries in sensitive places. She had heard that he was considering being a monk these days.

She sensed Sesshoumaru a couple of times, but he never came too close. She never went looking for him, either. She was still sorting out what she felt for him, and she had a feeling he was doing the same. When he decided, he would either seek her out or leave, and that would be her answer. She was fine with that. She'd known for a long time that if she wanted roses and romance, she was after quite the wrong youkai.

The idyll lasted for nearly a year before the wolf youkai found her.

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She was out picking some herbs to make a stew when she heard the sounds. Two children, panicked, screaming. Curious, she flew over to where the sound had come from. In the bright light of midday, she could see the whole scene clearly, even from her perch high in the air.

Two boys were crouched precariously on a high ledge on the cliff face, shrieking with fear as they kept their limbs from slipping over the edge and landing within reach of the four wolves that snapped and snarled below them. They were just safe, but the cliff was hardly stable.

It was the work of a moment to send a wind blade slicing through the air to scatter the wolves, and retrieve the boys before they regained their wits. The wolves gave chase immediately.

Kagura cursed. She wasn't using her fastest feather; she had picked out one of the more steady ones this morning so that her herbs wouldn't tip off. The wolves would certainly be able to keep track, and leading them back to the human village or her own home was not appealing.

She flew higher into the mountains, dodging and twisting between the rocks until she was sure they had been thrown off her trail. 'Are you all right?' she asked the boys.

'Y-y-yeah,' one of them replied.

'Good. I'm taking you back home now, all right? Don't leave the village for a few days, and tell everyone to travel in groups. Got it?'

The older boy, who looked to be about ten, nodded. 'I'll tell them.'

'Right.' After another ten minutes, she led the feather back towards their village.

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Kagura was worried. The place she had chosen was far from the wolf-tribes' territory, and those wolves hadn't felt like they travelled with youkai. Still, she knew that Kouga had sent out an alert to all the wolves he knew to keep an eye out for her, and if they recognised her youki (which hadn't changed, although her scent had) the wolf prince would hear. Her fighting style was rather distinctive too, and her feather.

She regretted killing the wolf youkai. It had been unnecessary slaughter, and it hadn't been a fair match even then. But it wasn't worth her life, not when she'd already died once. It hadn't been her own decision. Not that the wolves would understand that, of course. Even though they had killed countless villagers in search of that jewel shard, her own killing was somehow morally wrong. Every youkai she had killed that day had been a murderer a hundred times over; but that didn't count either. The illogic of revenge was something marvellous.

Leaving her home and moving across the country seemed a feasible option. So did making a pre-emptive strike on Kouga's lands. But Kagura had worked damn hard to make this place hers, and she wasn't going to give it up unless there was no other choice; and killing others was what had brought her to this point. There was always the possibility that Kouga had forgotten his vengeance and accepted her death as adequate payment, but he wasn't the type. Too stubborn, too stupid. Too annoying.

So she waited instead, fatalistically, for the wolves. In a roundabout way, she let the villagers know they could be having demon problems, although she didn't mention that she was linked to the wolves in any way.

A month after she had first saved those boys from being eaten, the wolves attacked.

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They came in the evening, hordes of them. They were as silent as they could be, but they triggered her wards long before they came within striking distance. Kagura was impressed by the sheer numbers Kouga had summoned. There must have been over a hundred and fifty of them, both youkai and animals.

'Kagura!' the wolf prince bellowed as they approached. 'The time has come for you to die!'

'Been there, done that, wolfy,' she sneered, stepping onto her feather. 'Didn't care for it much, though, so you first.'

Kouga snarled. 'I will avenge my dead upon your corpse!'

'Yadda, yadda, yadda. Less talk and more attack, boy.' She floated up some twenty feet and hovered.

He rushed her then. He was much slower without those infernal jewel shards, and she chuckled, and then he suddenly brought his arm down. Arcs of lightning sprang from his hand that had changed into something else. 'What the–' Kagura said involuntarily as she dodged sideways, avoiding the lightning at the last moment.

'As you can see, witch, I am more than a match for you now,' Kouga said, smirking.

Kagura didn't tell him that her powers had increased as well. 'That may be, Kouga, but your range is as pathetic as ever.' She flew higher, and saw the flicker of frustration on his face. 'I could kill the lot of you from here while cleaning my toenails. Or I could just fly away and leave you howling at the wind.'

His blue eyes narrowed. 'I thought you might say something like that,' he said. 'Twenty of my best men are hidden around the village right now. They won't attack them if you win, or lose. If you leave ………they'll kill the lot.'

Kagura cursed fluently. Since when had he become a tactician? 'All right,' she said, her agile mind already working the situation. 'I'll make you an offer then. Single combat. One on one. You and me. If you win, I die. If you lose…I go free. No more fighting. Not now, not ever.'

'What?' he spat incredulously.

'Yes or no, wolf-boy? If we fight the ordinary way, a lot of your people are going to die for no reason. You really want that?' Surely that would sway him. It had to. He was insanely loyal to his people.

'Where the hell are you going with this?' he asked, confused.

'Yes. Or. No. which word didn't you understand? Or is the widdle boy afraid of fighting the big bad lady alone without his jewel shards?'

'Witch,' he hissed, bright blue eyes turning into mere slits, face contorting in hatred. 'I'll kill you for that alone.'

'If you can,' she snorted. 'Tell your little pack to back off, boy, and we'll fight.'

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_Why am I doing this?_ The thought ran through her again and again. Risking her own life for the sake of a few humans.

Part of it was that for the first time in her life, she had built something instead of destroying, she had a home now and she had worked too hard to just up and leave it, and she was never going to run again. But most of it was that she was sick of the relentless cycle of vengeance that dogged her. She had been brought into existence by a thirst for vengeance, had sought vengeance all her life, had been the object of a campaign to avenge since within a month of her birth. Until she broke those cycles, she would never be free of her past. Kouga was her last link to the misery of her first life, to Naraku.

And Kagura had always hated being bound to anything.

She scowled, landed at what she judged was a safe distance from the wolf-pack. Kouga just stood there, staring at her, puzzled. Had he expected his threat to be futile? The old Kagura wouldn't have been bothered at all.

'While we're young, wolf-boy,' she said, and he attacked.

He was fast, deadly fast. She remembered that jewel shards only amplified existing traits, they didn't give new ones. She had to be very alert, dodging his blows by inches. That lightning-claw of his was frighteningly accurate as well, glinting lethally in the moonlight. Her own wind blades, strengthened by months of practice, could intercept them, but the stronger ones broke through, and he had a mean punch besides. Kagura was no weakling, but if he hit her she would be finished.

Unlike most people, Kagura, as a wind elemental, had an advantage in that she was fighting in three dimensions. She couldn't fly, but she could leap up fairly high and glide a little. She used it to good effect, forcing him to use his lightning again and again, tiring him out until her own muscles screamed from exhaustion.

Then she attacked, driving him backwards, her tornadoes and blades shepherding him, making him retreat slowly but surely until he came up hard against the cliff face that she called home. Once he was there, she used the finer control she had learnt in the last few months, and slim but steel-strong bands of air punched him everywhere at once. He couldn't even retaliate; unlike her other attacks, these were invisible. Kouga convulsed with pain as they slammed him against the mountain, bound his hands and legs to the rock. He struggled madly, but his lightning claw was immobilised, and his leg attacks were useless.

Kagura stepped up to him, smirking. 'Do you yield?' she demanded.

'What are you waiting for? Kill me already,' he spat, and to his credit, he didn't even flinch as she swept her fan up, its razor-sharp edge resting oh so lightly on his throat.

'So you admit defeat?' she asked out loud. She had to make him say it, or else the battle was pointless. His people would never stop, even if he did.

'Yes,' he gritted out.

For a long moment they froze there, she with her fan at his throat, poised to slice his head off as he stared into her eyes with burning hatred.

Then Kagura stepped away, snapping her fan shut. The bands of air fell away from his body and he stumbled before catching his balance. 'All right, shaggy. You've had your turn, now get the hell out of here and leave me alone.'

'Why?' he whispered, so low even the other youkai couldn't have heard.

'Why?' she mocked at the same volume. 'In case you didn't notice, you lost, wolf-boy.'

'Not that. Why did you let me live?'

She turned to face him, her forehead creasing. 'I'm sick of death, and I'm sick of revenge. You owe me your life now, and you lost fairly to me. And,' she added in a very low voice, 'I am truly sorry for the deaths of your friends. I was forced to kill them, and I paid for my crimes with a very painful death. And I don't want to do that anymore. I just want to be left alone. To be free. I never wanted anything else.'

He had read something in her expression that ; blue eyes had softened, helpless, confused, and maybe, just maybe……a little understanding? But that was too much to ask, and she turned her eyes away again.

He stepped forwards a little. 'You've changed, Kagura.'

'I've been hearing that a lot lately,' she said sarcastically. 'Now go away. I'm getting bored.'

'All right,' he said and moved to face his men. 'I declare that the feud with Kagura, daughter of Naraku–'

'Of the Wind,' she corrected harshly. 'My name is Kagura of the Wind.' No clan, no family. That was fine by her.

'Kagura of the Wind,' he agreed, 'is hereby fulfilled in fair combat.' In less formal terms, he added, 'Let's go home.'

She watched carefully as he went back to his men. The wolves began to leave, when there was some sort of scuffle in their ranks. She moved closer, curious.

'He killed my brother!' a shrill voice said, and then there was a sharp cracking sound.

Kagura had never heard the sound of a gunshot before.

She had also never been shot in the stomach before.

Both, she found, were highly unpleasant.

She doubled over, clutching her abdomen, hurting too badly to summon her feather. Through pain-blurred vision, she saw the youkai who had shot her, a spiky-haired male, run out of the crowd and take aim again. She heard Kouga yell, 'No!' and saw him leap to restrain. She saw the acid-green whip slice the youkai who had shot her into pieces.

Then she was lifted up, roughly but carefully, and everything was a blur of white as she registered the acceleration before passing out.

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When she came to, it was reminiscent of another time when he'd saved her life, fishing her out of a river while she tried to recover from another wound to the chest and stomach.

Life, she thought bitterly, sure had a sense of humour.

She was lying on her back on a rock, her wound was mostly healed, and he was sitting on another, staring into the middle distance, eyes carefully averted from her.

He hadn't looked at her the last time either. Not until she'd covered herself.

How very unexpectedly gallant.

'Sesshoumaru,' she breathed, pulling her outfit closed and struggling into a sitting position. One ear twitched very slightly.

'You're awake.'

'Yeah,' she said with not a little surprise. The bullet wasn't in her anymore. Youkai healing didn't account for objects still being embedded. He must have taken it out. 'Thank you.'

No reply. Did he really have to make her tear her hair out?

'Why didn't you step in before if you were watching?'

'It was not my fight.'

Which was all the explanation he would probably give. Kagura knew – from bitter, bitter experience – that if she had lost her battle with Kouga, then he would still not have interfered. Damn his warped sense of ethics. 'Then why did you come after me later?'

He turned to look at her reprovingly, as if she should have guessed. 'He broke the rules his leader had agreed to. I felt no need to be kind to a traitor.'

She huffed, frustrated. 'You'd have let me die?'

'This battle was a consequence of your killing his people. If you had not been strong enough, yes, I would have let you die. However, you behaved in a worthy manner, although I do not approve of letting their leader live.'

'You wouldn't,' she grumbled. The wound was nearly closed now. 'But he kept his word. It was a fair gamble. Besides, if I had run, or killed him, there would have been so many other deaths.' The loss of a strong leader generally turned soldiers into mobs. She had seen it. If Kouga had died……

'I know.'

'So you were there, then?'

Silence. Obviously.

'So what do you think?'

'Your powers are……innovative. But certainly useless should you challenge me.'

That was it. Kagura's temper was as short as Sesshoumaru's average sentence, and it flared spectacularly. 'Is that all you ever think about?' she raged, getting in his face. Damn the man, he didn't even look fazed. And he didn't feel the need to stand, to equal her height. 'Who has more power, how much you'll gain if you fight this one and kill that one and align with the other; the next move in your elaborate game for something you probably won't even want once you get it! I wasn't even talking about my powers! You cold, ruthless son of a bitch, don't you have a heart?'

He met her gaze evenly. 'Tell me something, wind user. What could I have possibly gained from saving you the first time? And I did try.'

She felt exactly as she would have if she slipped off her feather while asleep; waking up and falling, falling. 'I……'

'I owe you nothing, Kagura. Nothing. But I did aid you today.'

'And why was that, since you don't seem to care about me at all?'

'Don't put words in my mouth.'

'Sesshoumaru,' she breathed, taking that for the indirect admission it was. So he'd decided, then.

He stood then, and she resisted the urge to back away when she saw how close they suddenly were. That was weakness, and it would amuse him, and she was not going to be laughed at.

'Kagura,' he whispered, leaning in very close.

'Wh…'

'If you really want to insult me,' he said, leaning in even further, 'I suggest that you choose an epithet that is less true of an inuyoukai.'

And before her slightly muddled brain could figure that out, he kissed her very lightly on the forehead and vanished.

Kagura's eyes opened wide – when had she shut them? – and then narrowed. 'Come back here, you jerk!' she yelled. Mocking silence replied, but she was sure he had heard. Sighing, she summoned her feather.

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After that, it became almost a commonplace thing to feel him just on the outskirts of her little territory, and she saw that little girl of his a few times, playing in the village with the other children. Word had gotten around the village that Kagura had been involved in driving the wolves away somehow, and she was now a sort of local heroine, and when she casually introduced Rin to the other children they were playing together in seconds as if they had been friends for years.

Occasionally, they met, and exchanged mildly impolite conversation. With his silence and her temper, it was hard to talk for long.

It went on for quite a while, and Kagura began to wonder if he had nothing else to do. He was the Lord of the Western Lands, didn't he have paperwork or something?

She asked him about it one day, in her usual blunt manner. 'Why are you always hanging around here? Don't you have work to do?'

He froze. Considering that he was normally impassive, this was almost impossible, but he looked almost……hurt. Even Kagura, who wasn't very perceptive, noticed.

'I didn't mean it like that,' she said quickly. 'But you're the Lord of the Western Lands, right? Don't you have responsibilities to fulfil? You seem to be here all the time.'

'My title is empty. I gave up my lands even before my father died.'

'I don't believe it,' she said, chuckling. 'The great Lord Sesshoumaru has no home, no court full of adoring youkai women just falling all over themselves to wipe his boots and make him tea in the morning……I never reckoned you for a social guy, but this is ridiculous.' She fell silent, contemplating something. 'You know, we're not that different at all.'

'Pardon?' he said icily.

'I try to be free by not being near anything, and you try to be free by not allowing people to have power over you. I guess, in the end, what we both want is to be free.' She risked a glance at him then, and his eyes were thoughtful, softer than they usually were. 'Don't you think so?'

Silence.

'What are you doing?' he said after a while. She was kneeling on the ground, eyes closed.

'I'm trying to summon something back to me.'

'What?'

'A feather,' she said, concentrating. 'I think I lost it when I died the last time. It must have floated away from me before I…anyway. It's a part of me, it should return if I call it correctly.'

'Hn,' he said. It was a very odd sort of Hn, and Kagura looked up curiously, one crimson eye peeking discreetly at him. Just then, she felt the dormant youki in her feather stir. It was close. Very close. She stretched out her hand and it floated into it – from a fold of cloth behind Sesshoumaru's chest armour.

Kagura stared at the feather in disbelief. Then she gaped at Sesshoumaru.

The inuyoukai looked as if he were seriously considering flight.

Then she began to laugh. 'You had it?' she said. '_You _had it?'

'I don't see what's funny,' he growled, sounding very like his younger brother at that moment.

'It's not,' she said, wiping at her eyes and speaking over the disbelieving happiness that was threatening to embarrass her. 'How long have you had it?'

A very pointed silence. 'Since I died, then.' The laughter was threatening again, but she held it back. If she laughed, he would leave.

'I have often thought,' he said very quietly, 'that the secret of true freedom is being bound by nothing, allowing nothing to touch you. Simply to exist. To have nothing and need nothing.'

'Not even life?'

'Not even that.'

'But we're all bound,' she said, tapping her fan against her lips. 'I'm bound by my past, my circumstances, my desires, my choices. And so are you, whether you admit it or not. You're bound by your nature. You're bound to your hatred of your brother, and Naraku; and you're bound by your love for Rin.'

'I am not bound–'

'But they dictate your actions, don't they?'

He fixed an icy glare on her, but she didn't flinch. 'These emotions bring weakness with them.'

'And denying them is a different weakness. I admit that I am bound to many things, and that's fine, because I chose them. But you……you're only bound to your fear of not being free, and that's a very lonely fate, Sesshoumaru.'

'You imply that I am lonely? That I am afraid?'

'Aren't you?'

He looked away.

'I'd rather be held to what I choose than to be held by the fear of choosing anything. That ends in emptiness. I should know. I've tried it.'

'And what have you chosen that has brought you anything?'

'I chose to fight instead of run, and it saved a village, as well as a wolf-pack. I chose to be honourable for once, and it bought me my freedom from Kouga's vengeance. I chose to save someone's life, and it made me friends I had never dreamed of having. I chose to be alone, and I was happy. And I chose you. I choose you. I think I like my choices, yes I do.'

'Oh,' he said so softly that if she had not commanded the wind she would never have known.

'I thought a lot about freedom, the last year, when I was making my home. About revenge, too. It seems that my entire life has revolved around those two concepts.'

'And what did you decide?'

She smiled. 'I can be who and what I want now.' She stood, a rush of energy filling her. 'I'm free. Free as the wind.'

He didn't reply, staring away from her. Kagura sighed, and began to walk away. His voice stopped her. 'You leaving?'

He'd asked her that before.

'Do you want me to?'

He took a second to answer that, but when he did, he was firm. Clear. 'Never.'


End file.
